Babes in Consumerland: Subcultural Fashion By-passes the World of Ready-made Clothing.

 

“I always do a lot of my thinking and creating on instinct. I don’t think that a diamond is better than a safety pin; to me it’s just a thing or a shape. Money isn’t a thing that holds back creative people. In fact, it can spoil it sometimes”

– Judy Blame

 

Often, it is the interest in novelty that prompts us to consume fashion, which also interlinks this field to the entertainment industry. Since clothing has ceased to serve as mere clothes and has become a whole set of connotations concerning the social and financial situation of the owner, their life habits and even their political position, the possibility of constant innovation has become the main driving force for the fashion industry. Being a universal language that unites people of different backgrounds, fashion has always had tendencies of producing (sub)cultures. Subcultures, above all, represent the attitude – ‘style’ as opposed to clothing, ‘noise’ as opposed to music. Their striving dynamic is capable of infinitely sourcing media and mass culture with unique, progressive and, often, radical visuals and sounds. Culturally rooted and socially performed, the function of style in subcultures is to convey meanings and outlooks which can often reflect on political, social, economical, etc. environment of the time. In this essay, I will be analysing the role of the second-hand clothing and the importance of independent enterprise within fashion cultures – as a case study, I will be looking into Vivienne Westwood’s and Malcom McLaren’s shop ‘Sex’ which in the 1970’s served as a hub for the punk movement to develop inside of and to, then, become the home of one of the most revolutionary subcultures in the history.

 

In the present post-modern and digitally occupied world, trends have essentially replaced movements. The inward recycling effect of the modern mass media implies that youth cultures are born into the media. There is a new factor of quick and universal exposure which substitutes the period of subcultural development that was required in the post-war cultures. The incessant structures of consumerism in fashion industry now operate at an exceedingly fast pace to scour for the new ideas and trends, which, then, are used by these structures to profit from. However, there is also an alternative community of consumers in the clothing industry that attempt to bypass the mass market of fast fashion. For them, fashion is more than just clothing; rather, it is used to express their identity, interests, references, etc. When used as a medium of communication, styled clothing can gain new cultural dimensions – how people use the language of fashion is culturally embedded. Because fashion is an external sign of human communication, and communication between people can be attained with or without visual signals, the perceptive meaning of a performed style can sometimes be assumed intuitively. However, cultural references in styling often carry most of the meaning; an individual’s personal styling and editing is essentially a process of intellectual and cultural reason. Therefore, the prevalent aspect in the workings of fashion cultures is the experience of the individual in society.

 

As global markets obtain society, and with ‘culture becoming strategically linked to inward investment’ (Ford and Davies 1998, p.2), fashion corporations assert their enthusiasm for avant-garde style and new creative energies. However, there are numerous signs of conservatism and regulation present within these companies’ politics as their primary goal is to produce profit and to market to an infinitely wide audience. Through subsidising the signs of culture and fashion communication, these corporations cater new trends and impressions of the high fashion world to the public. The lightning of the (sub)cultural fashion by the clothing corporations diminishes the communicational value of clothing and styles that have been created by people based on their individual and/or collective experiences; their reflections conversed through style are practically neglected. Instead, the meaning of style is degraded to its appearance and visual aesthetic. For instance, the famous Robert Mapplethorpe’s cover photograph of Patti Smith with a jacket over her shoulder and a loosened tie introduced the new sense of androgyny which had a much greater impact than, for example, Diane Keaton’s feminine take on male wardrobe with her hippy eccentric image. This new concept of punk androgyny was instantly affiliated by fashion media as ‘liberating’ and ‘radical’, thus creating a new dynamic for the clothing corporations to market. These new looks were soon being worn by women of various backgrounds as an accessory of professionalism. Essentially, the mass adoption of Patti Smith’s look meant that the alterations necessary for styles created from the second-hand culture could now be easily imitated. ‘The moment of commodification – as it is transformed from cultural expression to product, as traditions are usurped by change – is crucial.’ (Connell and Gibson, 2003, p. 19)

 

Usually, youth subcultures rely on second-hand clothing as the material for the creation of style. Second-hand markets provide a vast range of clothes from different eras, styles, prices, etc., hence representing the space where the freedom of visual expression is most prominent. The cultural value of used clothing should also be mentioned – purchasing second-hand clothes improves fashion sustainability and breaks the circle of fast fashion consumption. As stated by Angela McRobbie (1989, p. 45), ‘by recycling discarded pieces of clothing new wearers are not only beating the system by finding and defining high fashion cheaply, they are also making good use of the social surplus’. Therefore, the environmental concern comes beside the aspiration for creation of a unique aesthetic. Second-hand fashion feeds the concept of ‘authenticity’ which is essential to the youth subcultures. The authentic dynamic comes into play when the used clothes are bought and transformed or/and arranged to create new cultural meanings and aesthetics. Furthermore, the process of browsing and purchasing from the second-hand markets signifies the active thought which is put into creating and editing individual style. Though often associated with poverty, second-hand clothing is rather often used by stylists and designers to produce high fashion visuals. It is usually the people with no access to large funds and media exposure that create most of the high fashion aesthetics; they have the social drive to express themselves through fashion, essentially, it is inspired by challenge. Subcultures, therefore, unite people under the ongoing force of fashion communication and body politics.

 

The entrepreneurial dynamic within subcultures still remains a relatively disregarded subject in cultural analysis. The entrepreneurial infrastructure within the second-hand market has offered young ambitious people the opportunity to participate in the fashion scene at the time when the mass fashion market has alienated itself from high fashion world and closed its doors to the progressive thinking designers and artists. Therefore, markets have become new spaces for the youth to practice their styles as well as meet like-minded people; ‘markets remain pre-industrial gathering’ (McRobbie, 1989, p.32). Young people go to markets and sales to see and be seen; they elevate the process of consuming fashion to a type of live performance. Furthermore, such gatherings are politically informed and naturally unite people by the common objective of creating an alternative (sub)culture. Subcultural aesthetics and expressions exist within a broad range of creative fields: fashion, music, graphic design, photography, poetry, etc. Within subcultures, naturally, clothes have to be made and sold, bands have to find spaces to play, performances have to be advertised, posters have to be designed and printed, which requires managerial skills; even in the realm of do-it-yourself ethic. For many young fashion entrepreneurs, professional growth in the industry entails getting a licence to sell second-hand clothes, then using a stall as a space for displaying and selling restored clothes and newly crafted work. The provision of such services was typically contributed by the lower middle-class art and fashion students who rejected the jobs available in large corporations. As long as for most young people media remains perceptible as a part of global consumption, the alternative culture which opposes itself to consumerism will always exist. Despite the concrete do-it-yourself ethic and the enterprise culture, this bohemian alternative scene remains an aloof and inaccessible phenomenon for most of the media world. Hence, subcultural enterprises only exist as an obscure and considerably privileged urban anomaly.

 

In (sub)cultural analysis, relatively little attention is paid to the selling of subcultures. As an example, the role of the ‘Sex’ – a shop run by Vivienne Westwood and Malcom McLaren, in the punk movement of 1970s has not been analysed in depth. Not only it served the wider public and introduced the new provocative styles but it also functioned as a meeting hub for like-minded people and creators; essentially, it inspired and informed the whole movement. A stranger in the ‘Posers’ (1981), the documentary on King’s Road fashion and the ‘Sex’, said to the interviewer: ‘It’s about young people who want to be different and want to be surrounded by other people who are also different.’ In fact, it shared the same role as the second-hand markets, indicating that it’s purpose was not only to sell clothing and make profit but also to serve as a platform for other independent creatives to exchange ideas, network and develop their own practice, whether it was music, fashion, graphic design or other fields – the political and social context of punk added the intermedia element which was usually not present in the preceding subcultures. At the time, the concept that style could be purchased in a shop went against the idea that punk style was an enactment of creative defiance distant to the routine of consumption. The relevance of Westwood and McLaren was also undervalued since punk was seen by most analytics as a collective creative impulse. Naturally, to focus on an individual designer entrepreneur would threaten the authenticity of punk as a subculture and collective phenomenon. Although, it’s do-it-yourself ethic might contradict the existence of entrepreneurial infrastructures, the business dynamic of places like the ‘Sex’ opposed itself to capitalism in its initial interpretation. Westwood’s famous quote 'Buy less, choose well, make it last' (2013) reflects concisely the principles shared by the style driven youth. Punk ideals have altered fashion into popular art, and collecting individual fashion pieces into a hobby. However, with emergence of mass fashion production these values shifted, clothing became intensely subsidized and utilized to produce profit and the original meanings of fashion are transformed to maximise its monetisation. 

 

Cultural and political impact of subcultural dynamic in the society is natural since the subcultures are usually informed by the challenges that certain groups of people confront. For instance, punk aesthetic is usually associated with the signals of refusal and aggression, these signs do not simply exist as the part of reality but they reflect and refract the individual experiences. In this sense, subcultural fashion is used to make statements and raise peoples’ conciseness about certain social, economical or political issues. Moreover, style might be seen as the physical manifestation of the way collective mind works – often, youth strive to understand self in continuity, rather than in isolation. The political power of the subcultures is fuelled by the dynamic of unity. The fact that most subcultures are created in political opposition makes them very aware elements of the society. Unfortunately, cultural appropriation of subcultures often results in the extinction of a subculture, as its members create new visuals purposely opposing themselves to the mainstream trends. In the postmodern world, the ideas are often adopted from the movements of the past and the information is recycled to produce new styles. The postmodern society seems to be incapable of producing original visuals without using the semiotics of the fashion signs of the past. Hence, the modern scene can be described as a cultural collage with old visuals reintroduced into circulation as pastiche.

 

As cited by McRobbie (1989), ‘very little has come out of the whole teenage development that has more beauty than decorated rocker jackets’. They reflect the collective creative impulse – the main aspect of the subcultures. The second-hand fashion scene provides the youth drawn to the fashion and creation of style with cheap and expansive collection of clothing. In the postmodern world, with the loss of faith in future, people's ‘cultural diplomacy’ is much stronger than political slogans and economic sanctions. And fashion adopted the role of a universal language, uniting people from different backgrounds. Often, for people who struggle in most important aspects of their lives, fashion and unifying ethic of subcultures is the only thing that provides them with the sense of purpose.

 

 

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